Fantasy Football Today - 8 Riskiest Players + Late-Round Tight Ends, Injury Updates & More! (08/27 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

Help us raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital here: https://tinyurl.com/FFTDonate2026We’re breaking down the riskiest players to draft, including Christian McCaffrey (4:06), Puka Nacua (8:41), Ashton Jeanty (12:01), Josh Jacobs, Jeremiyah Love (14:01) and more, plus some of the toughest draft-day player decisions. We also debate rising values like Bucky Irving (27:00) and late-round tight ends (30:20), preview the Do Not Draft List (38:01), and discuss the (44:20) worst preseason ever. Then we cover the latest (45:30) injuries, news and notes you need to know before your draft, along with (59:30) offensive line rankings.Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcastsWatch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Up to the races and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

A big weekend of fantasy drafts is coming up and I just realized I need some team names. I just, I'm not feeling my team name game right now. So happy to hear some suggestions. We'll definitely get team name Tuesday back in the mix at some point. Welcome to this show. I got a good one from last night. What was it? One of my team names and one of the leagues we do is going to be go to the 500 section.

The last hour of our draft a thought just really got away from me. Really got away. The last 40 minutes when Nando came on, really. What a shocker. If the two young men who are. our list came on the show last night that randomly came on the show last night at Universal Studios. I hope they're having a great time. I hope they got to see Scott Fish again. And that was one of the most incredible things ever. It was so cool. I wish we should do more of that. I mean,

you never know how it's going to happen. But it was basically, for those of you who missed it, we had our three-hour draftathon show yesterday. I'm going to talk about some of the things that some of the other analysts from around the industry said. But we had Scott Fish joining us live from Universal Studios where he was vacationing. And he just started, I was like, we were like, let's get some man on the street stuff. So he just started shouting out, hey, Christian McCaffrey or I'm on Ross St. Brown. Nobody paid attention. Christian McCaffrey or Ammon Rosset Brown.

They finally found these two guys who, he was like, you guys know Jamie Eisenberg? You guys know Mike Florio? And they were like, yeah, yeah. They came on and asked some questions. It was very cool. But that was last night. Today is today. Thank you all for donating.

Thank you all for watching. Today we're going to try to help you get ready for your draft, telling you about risky players like Christian McCaffrey and Ashton Jenty and Jeremiah Love, when to take them, giving you news updates, giving you some takeaways from the Draftathon. One of the biggest risers, I think, is pretty clear at this point, is Bucky Irving, whether the industry is going to be right about him or not. I mean, I saw him going at the 3-4 turn in one of the FFT Open leagues yesterday. I want to talk about Bucky Irving, a little bit of Do Not draft list, and offensive line.

We're going to talk about some offensive lines. Apparently the commander's offensive lines struggled mightily in joint practices. and who else is worrying us right now. Let's start with drafting risky players. Christian McCaffrey is blank in your rankings. Jamie? 11th. Dave.

Eighth. Okay. Me, he's more like five. I don't really. I just kind of, whenever I feel it, whatever I'm feeling it, let's just go.

Sounds like you're feeling it. This guy has averaged 23.8 or more PPR fantasy points four times in his career, four full seasons in his career, or at least 16 games. And I'll remind you, in 2022, Christian McCaffrey had 381 touches. He played three postseason games.

They probably went to the Super Bowl that year. It was a long run. Maybe it was an NISTV championship game. And he came back to next year, played 16 games in average 24.7 points per game. So no, he didn't have 400 touches, but he had 381. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not crazy.

Who would you ask? I mean, you're not crazy. Look, he's amazing. We all want him to be amazing. We all want him to be the same guy that he was last year and the same guy that he's been every year of his career when he's been healthy. However, two times he's been over 400 total touches

and two times he has failed to play a full season the next year. So it's tough to say it's safe. And you reference what year? 23. 22. Well, 2022, 381 touches including three. No, I don't think that's right. I think it's 2023.

No, it's 2022. Oh, okay. Maybe it's 23. It was the year he got traded to the Niners. No, oh, I see. 2020. 2020 was his first four year with San Francisco. 2024, he missed time.

Yeah, so 2022, 300, 381 touches. They did not go to the Super Bowl. That was the year where Purdy got hurt in the playoffs. They lost Philadelphia. Okay, he lost the NFC championship game. Three post-season games, though. And then he played a full season, basically, and he averaged over 24 points per game the year after.

But he didn't hit 400 touches. I get it. Three years ago. He's 30 now. Um, young, 30, whatever this, this mysterious, uh, absence was all part of the plan, Jamie. You're not paying. Yeah, all part of the plan that, that is coach either lied about or he wasn't forthcoming about or just, hey, I'm, I'm good. Look, listen, nobody wants to be more wrong than me.

I want to be wrong on this. It's the same thing I said about Berkeley last year. I want to be wrong on this. I want him to be awesome. I have McCaffrey in my longest running dynasty league. I have McCaffrey in a league that I drafted the other day because he felt. to 11 and it was too hard to pass up at that point. So I think if you're comfortable drafting him,

you've been the only person that I've seen in draft that I've done that has taken him fifth overall. I thought Mike Floreo said it best on our stream last night. He wants other people to take him. I feel the same way. I want somebody else to take him and I want them to be rewarded by doing so. But at the same time, like, I'm drafting a lot of Kalon Black. I want to see who's going to be the number two running back there because we've been

down this path before. So I'm nervous. That's the only way I could frame it is. I'm nervous about McAfree staying healthy for a full season. Let me tack on one other thing, Adam. Look at what the Niners did this offseason. They brought in Mike Evans. They brought back Debo Samuel.

They drafted DeJon's dribbling. He's going to be a thing. George Kittles healthy. They are not going to be, or at least they don't want to be, as reliant through the air on McCaffrey as they were last year. 7.1 targets per game for McCaffrey was a high, that's the highest average he had since he went to San Francisco. It's the second highest of his career.

It's the highest he's had in San Francisco by 1.7 targets per game. So if we knock that down and it makes sense to knock that down, given everybody that they've added in San Francisco, that's fewer catches. That lowers the PPR threshold. That lowers what the upside is. And I think the addition of Kalon Black and Jordan James getting healthy, I think they're there to take some of those lesser important carries off of

McAfee. And that just opens the door for him having just a little bit less. And I talked about it on the draftathon. I think there is a world where he averages somewhere between 16 and 18 PPR points per game and make that look like 12 to 14 non-PPR points per game, something in that range, where he's still worth the first round pick, but not a top six pick. And there's obvious downside. We've talked about it.

Jamie just talked about it. It's real. And it makes me nervous to take them. anywhere close to where you're taking him at him. That's fine. I understand. I understand. I'm looking at eight different FFT open leagues.

I'm going to tell you he went 11th. He went 11th, seventh, sixth, eighth, eighth, fourth. I saw him go third in one league, seventh in this league, eighth in this league. Eighth in this league. I may have repeated one. Fifth in this league. So he's all over the place. Next up, next up, risky player, Puka Nakua.

Maybe suspended. Still has in practice. He's got a groin injury for Pooka. is it? Yes. Would you rather have Puka Nakua or Jackson Smith and Jigba? Today it's Puka, but we're getting closer to that point where if he's not back at practice soon, you've got to imagine that this injury could limit him a little bit early

on in the year and maybe it lingers on and you might feel better taking JSN. Jamie Pooker or JSN? It would be St. Brown for me if I have to choose another receiver, but it would probably be both of them going to move Puka down. So I think just looking at it that his ceiling is wide receiver 1. We saw that last year. His floor is probably wide receiver 10, I think in minimum, as long as he's healthy. So hopefully there's reason to buy into him still being that guy.

And as I'm now, I agree with Dave. I'm not moving him down. Yeah. It's just the only two players who averaged more than 22 points per game last year other than quarterbacks were Pooka Nakuwa and Christian McCaffrey. And it's a shame where we have questions about both of them going in. I want to show a graphic here because we got an email, great email from Bob, said, is anyone slightly concerned with Puka's 2026 volume given how Stout the Rams defense is projected to be? Doesn't it seem more likely for JSN to finish with more points? So I did some numbers here.

I want you to look, this is Puka Nakuwa. Now, he usually has, every year of his career has had 10 to 12 carries. What I did was... Cairies. Oh, yeah. Carries. So I just used his receiving stats. Didn't put any carries in there at all. Fantasy points per game last year, just on receiving stats for Pooka and Akua was 22.5. The Rams ranked fifth per fifth and pass attempts. The rest of this is hypotheticals. Sorry, it says 2023 and 24 and the fantasy points per game. That's actually my mistake. That's not what those numbers are. So you can ignore that if you're looking at the graphics.

These numbers are, let's just say the Rams were 16th in pass attempts last year. How many points would Puka have averaged based on his yards per catch, yards per target, catch rate, touchdown rate over the last two seasons and his target share. If they had been 16th in pass attempts per game, Puka would have averaged 20.1 points per game on 167 targets last year. If they had been 28th, I think worst case scenario, fifth fewest pass attempts, in the NFL, he would have averaged 17.4 fantasy points per game. And that's bad. That's bad for a guy who's going to the top five. That's like a second round pick or maybe a one-two-turn kind of player.

But that's if the Rams had been 28th in pass attempts. I don't see that happening. They're usually middle of the pack and pass attempts. Last year they were fifth. They're usually middle of the pack and pass rate. So I think maybe you look at that if they had been 16th in pass attempts, he still would have had 167 targets. He's had a 30% target share when he's been on the field each of the last two seasons.

And he played three games last year, three healthy games where the Rams allowed less than 14 points. And he had eight, 11, and 11 targets in those three games. Hope that helps a little bit. Next risky player is Ashton Genti since seeing him a lot in the middle of round two, sometimes all the way to the middle of round three. Would you rather have Ashton Gentie or Devante Smith? Still Gentie right now, but that's close. they're almost back to back for me.

Almost back to back for me too. I've got Smith two spots higher. Josh Jacobs. There was a note, yes, there was a little almost alarmist that they talked about the Jacobs suspension in a press conference. They said they have plans in place in case Josh Jacobs gets suspended,

but they didn't say they expected it or anything like that. This was the GM for the Packers. Would you rather have Josh Jacobs or a preseason riser, Travis, Chan. Jacobs. Still Jacobs for now.

Okay. So close. Jamie, you see the breaking news? On Alex Pierce, yeah. Yes. Oh, he's off the Pup list. That's great. That's really good.

Okay. And Josh Downs has a calf injure. We're going to talk about him soon. All right. So Jacobs, you're taking him ahead of A. Chan. How about Jacobs or Kyron Williams? Jacob.

Oh, Trevor. You said A. Chan, and immediately my mind went to Devon A. I would rather have Devon A. Chan than Josh Jacobs. Who did you ask now? Which Williams? I'd rather have Jacobs than Kyron and Javante Williams. So is Jacob's top 30 player for you? Yes. No. Okay. Where is he, Dave? 26th. All right. He was RB 9 last year, and he was even better

than that before he kind of played the last few games of the year injured. And he had three games where he played fewer than 40% of the snaps. Take away those three games. His healthy games, Josh Jacobs averaged 19 PPR fantasy points per game. I mean, that is a first round player. So it's very appealing. But, you know, he hasn't been practicing. I think he's, is he back? He just got back, right?

To practice. I don't know if he's gone through any full team drills yet, but he has been back at practice. I think he has. He did. I think he just did 11 on 11 for the first time this week in a long time, Josh Jacobs. Which is fine, especially for running backs.

Like, you don't want them getting all beat up during camp and let them, let them take it easy. as long as they're practicing in full, you know, week and a half, two weeks before the start of the season, we're good. All right. Next up, Jeremiah Love or T. Higgins? Jeremiah Love being one of those risky players. T. Higgins, probably one of the safer players.

Higgins for me. T. I think it's getting kind of crazy with Jeremiah Love. I mean, he's a fourth round pick in a lot of leagues right now. Why? Why is such a downgrade? That's like a full round. And he could be back for week one.

Where would you draft RB16? Round three. Mid to late round three. Mid to late round three. Exactly where I have love. That's what Gentie was last season. And that's, there was an email,

I can't remember who it was, but it was one of the best emails we got all year, I think, for me anyway, said we had Gentie, we had Love ranked somewhere around 13, 14, you know, before his high ankle sprain.

And he said, Gentie was RB 15 or 16 last year per game. That's the worst outcome that we've seen from any running back drafted in the top 10, you know, over the last 10 years or so. Zeke, Fournett, even McCaffrey and full PBR, McCaffrey didn't have a great rookie season. He just caught a ton of passes. McCaffrey, Jamir, not Jamiegers,

Bejohn Robinson. Yeah, anyway, like, it seems like we were drafting Love at his floor before the ankle injury. Now he's going around later. Am I not reading? Now he has an ankle injury. Yeah, he does. That's why. But it was a preseason one.

All right. I get it. I mean, look, it's a good sign that he was back to practice yesterday, you know, doing some rehab stuff visibly, you know, so people can see, you know, that he's moving around. I think the concern comes in that he's injured on a bad team with a rough schedule with competition in his backfield of one specific scenario that hurts his upside. And that's the touchdowns because if Tyler Al Jir does what Tyler Al Jare is capable of doing, probably the role that he's going to play, that's where Jeremiah Love's going to lose. Look, he looked awesome in that game against the Raiders before he got hurt.

He has the ability to be awesome. Again, I don't think this is someone that you necessarily run away from, but what has changed on top of his ankle injury is Travis A. Chan's competition is also hurt. And so I would rather take the chance on him over Jeremiah Love, just given the circumstances. DeAndre Swift's competition is hurt. I'd rather take the chance on Swift over Love. That's just two players that I dropped him behind.

He was already in that mix, which I think a lot of people were struggling with, of Josh Jacobs and Kiron Williams and maybe Javante Williams. And so that whole jumbled group that starts round three and goes into round four, there's pros and cons for all of them. And so who's healthy, who's not, is a big factor. And I think right now, Jeremiah Love, factoring in everything is a little bit risky, which is why you bring him up. Yeah, no, he is for sure.

and he's going, you know, I just have eight random FFT Open Leagues pulled up. He's going similarly to Colston Loveland. Who would you guys rather have Loveland or Love? Love, Love. Oh, a Loveland for Jamie and a love for Dave. All right, we're going to take a break. I got Abuka versus Garrett Wilson.

Mike Evan. What did you say? With a little Loveland. With a little Loveland. Mike Evans versus Christian Watson, Josh Downs versus Dejohn's Stribling. We'll be right back to talk about more risky players then give you some draft-a-thon takeaways,

a couple or three late-round tight ends you could target, and much more on fantasy football today. I'm going to talk to you right now about Omaha Steaks, and this is a perfect time for me to do it because just last night, I cooked four Omaha Steaks for my family, and they were awesome, and we completely devour them. And tonight, Omaha Steaks burgers and hot dogs for the family. They also have seafood and side dishes.

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the worst sound bite thing ever when we were talking about. I thought you did that on purpose. There we go. Ameca, Abuka, Garrett Wilson. Who do you like better now? Garrett Wilson. G-dub.

What a shame. It is. Wilson or, I mean, Abuka or Tedroo McMillan. They're back to back, and I've got Ted a spot higher. I think the thing about the players you keep bringing up is if you're in to

drafting them, you're going to get them at great value now. I know. Like, think about this. Luther Burden comes back to practice yesterday, right? We all love Luther burden before he got hurt. The entire industry love Luther burden before he got hurt. And now you got him in round five, potentially. What would you rather have Abuca or Burden?

I still have a Bucca ranked one spot ahead of him. But if a Bucca remains out through the weekend and into the way part next week, I'll move burden ahead. I have a Bucca higher considerably. Mike Evans, who plans to play. week one, even though he has a groin injury according to Jeremy Fowler or Christian Watson. Watson.

Double-checking my rankings. I have Watson higher. Yeah, we had Adam Rowness on yesterday during the draftathon. He's from Fantasy Life and he's got an FFT Open League and he's terrific analyst and I asked him for some breakouts. He mentioned Christian Watson. And it's just, I want to, you know, it's been a while

since we've really broken down these players. But I want to remind everybody, Christian Watson is a yards per target. standout. He has been second in yards per target two straight seasons behind Alec Pierce both times. High A-DOT guys usually are great at that, but he was also starting to get

a lower A-DOT, like, came back first three games last year at a 26-yard A-DOT from weeks 11 through 18, 15.5 yard A-DOT which is high but it's not that high for Christian Watson and a 23.5% target share. 28.3% target per route run rate from weeks 11 through

17 or 17, I can remember. for Christian Watson. Exciting stuff, but no Tucker Kraft during that stretch. Didn't really have a healthy Jaden Reed, Matthew Golden,

you know, but okay, you guys are taking Christian Watson over Mike Evans. Are you yet? Um, uh, I think Christian Watson

is such a good player, but I do worry about the targets, you know? Yeah, I worry about the volatility. I'm still taking Evans, reluctantly. I'm,

worried about his volatility, too. I mean, we're talking about two players that have some injury concerns, but at least one of them is a little bit younger and isn't hurt now, and that's Watson. And I feel better taking the chance on Watson, seeing an uptick and targets, he averaged five and a half last year. If we're thinning the receiving core in Green Bay with no more Dobbs and no more Wicks, then maybe he can get to 6.3 targets per game.

and that can bump up his PPR points per game to maybe closer to 14. I think it's going to be a roller coaster, though. I've looked at so many metrics with him, and there's just like, it's less than 50% of the time. Less than 50% of the time he was good when he had a 70% plus route rate over the past two years. Christian Watson? This is Christian Watson. Eight games, including the postseason where he had 70% of the routes run last year, 18 plus PPR and three of them, 12.6 or fewer in the other five. he's a good, good enough to be a low end number two wide receiver,

not worth reaching for, but there's that point in the draft. You get to late round five, early round six, and you look at what's left and you might get a little nervous. At least you're taking a guy who does profile as the number one wide receiver on what should be, what should honestly be a good Green Bay offense,

and maybe that defense isn't as good, and it forces a lot of pass-heavy game scripts. You have a lot of guys in that range there, very similar profile. You have Jameson Williams, you have Marvin Harrison, you have Mike Evans, Christian Watson. They're, for the most part, volatile players, somewhat touchdown dependent, may or may not lead their team in targets, Brian Thomas Jr. Like, you know, all these type of guys. So like the pivots, if you need a receiver in that range, I've moved Chris Godwin into the top 30. I think he's, you know, worth taking in this range at this point, late round five, early round six.

Parker Washington, another one, you know, that has, that type of upside as well. So, you know, if you just don't want to deal with the inconsistencies, but targeting guys that are going to get more targets, like you can move to a couple of different wide receivers there. Okay. Let's go on to, by the way, the Packers have been 30th and 27th in past attempts the last two years. Just get me closer to 20.

And then, you know, we won't have to worry so much about the target crunch. Let's go to the last one that I have here on this risky players. We've liked Josh Downs all offseason. Would you rather have Josh Downs, who's now dealing with. with what's being called a minor calf injury or DeJohn stribling. I'll take sure. Downs for Dave, stribling for Jamie.

Okay. I didn't get a ton of consensus on this one. We did with Abuka versus Garrett Wilson. We did... Ooh, is that... Dee Higgins and... Love, I think he did. Yeah, yeah, yep, yep.

What about Genty or Devante Smith? I forgot. What did you guys say there? I said Smith. I said Genty for now. Okay. all right well there you go let's uh tell you what you need to know in terms of content we have there our must draft segue our must draft uh destination on the fantasy site cbsports.com slash fft

must draft we love that you listen to the podcast but if you want our must draft players you want a little write up on them you can go to that URL cbsports.com slash ffti must draft this is a brand new feature that we have exclusive picks from the ffti crew organized by where we target these players throughout the draft. So as you move through the draft, you can see which players we think you should be targeting in each range. Again, it's brand new.

Be one of the first to check it out. CBSports.com slash FFT must draft. And today, CBS Sports Network. What time are you guys on, noon? Yes. Noon Eastern CBS Sports Network. If you miss it, you can see the replay at YouTube.com slash fantasy football today.

The guys will be talking about their do not draft list and we'll have a little preview of that later on in today's show. Draftathon takeaways. So there was a, you know, decent amount of buzz about Bucky Irving and him moving up. And I wonder if we're overreacting a little bit from Pew to report, just speculating that Sean Tucker might not make the roster. And now we're just maybe thinking, oh, well, he's not a factor anymore.

Dave, you mentioned on the show last night, you saw Sean Tucker not working with the starters. But to me, that's not a huge surprise because his role, he's not a starter. He's just maybe a goal lineback. But one way or another, Bucky Irving seems to be on the rise right now. Dave, do you feel that?

Do you think it's justified? And where are you on Bucky? I'm not ready to move him up my rankings, but I also never really sent him too far south in my rankings. He's a top 50 player. He remains a top 50 player. Would take him ahead of running backs like Judkins, Scataboo, Price, and Montgomery.

And it's on the hunch that maybe this worry about Tucker does go away a little bit, and Bucky is best suited to handle most of that work near the goal line. But he's also, he looks great, put on a little bit of muscle. He looked a little bit bigger than I remember him being, and they're going to run a scheme that's going to be favorable to him. A lot of outside runs, letting him win the edge on the outside. I think he can do that against plenty of defenses. The offensive line for now is healthy. They were under siege on the first day of their joint practice against Jacksonville,

but that was in pass protection more so than run. And you worry a little bit about just how many targets he gets because last year he definitely got a bunch, certainly early on in the year, 4.8 targets per game in his first four games before he got hurt. I think that goes down because Gainwell's there. But he stands out as somebody who could get well north of a thousand total yards and still catch in the neighborhood of 35 passes, let's call it. So it comes down to just how many touchdowns he gets. And he had no carries inside the five last year. but Sean Tucker had nine. Rashad White had eight.

And if those guys aren't there, that means that those carries are up for grabs. I'd be surprised if they went to, if Tucker's not on the team, then Josh Williams, I'd be surprised if Gainwell got a lot of those. I think Bucky would be in line. And so getting him at that four or five turn range,

I'm good with. I'm hopeful for more than 35 catches from Bucky Irving. I keep giving this stat. But the first four games of the year, he was on pace for 81 catches, did not have a single target on third down. Yeah. In those four games,

I don't think 81 is even close to possible. But, you know, 50, I think could be just because Baker Mayfield has had a history with Tampa Bay of throwing to his running backs on first and second down. Gainwell is definitely going to play on first and second down. But, you know, Bucky will play a little bit on third down, I think. But anyway, like, yeah, so four or five turn we're still thinking for Bucky? That's where I've got him. Jamie? He's in round four for me.

I think just, you know, part of the reason that I moved him up was really more about the guys in front of him with. scataboo and this whole mess of what the Giants backfield could look like. I'd rather take Bucky Judkins and the offense that he's going to be on and just the struggles that are happening there. So I just feel like when we get to that point of past the group that I mentioned, Javante and Chiron and Jacobs and Jeremiah Love, A Chan Swift,

Brees Hall, like he's the next running back. Yes. Okay. What else? last night. So there were some late round tight ends that were talked about. Ben Gretch and Dan Schneier both talked up Terrence Ferguson. Jacob talked up Joanne Johnson and Dalton Schultz. Jamie, how would you rank Joanne Johnson, Terrence Ferguson, and Dalton Schultz? And who's, you know, when you talk about the highest guy, where is he in your rankings? Those guys are all back to back to back, 15, 16, and 17.

So Andrews is tight-end 13 as the first number two tight-end in my rankings. Kincaid is 14. 15 is Schultz just with the Higgins' absence. And I think he'll be over 100 targets. He had over 100 targets last year. Prior to that, he was basically 88 targets in each of the first two years in Houston. Joanne Johnson right after him, you know, the longer Jordan Tyson is out, I think the better that is for Johnson, who should be second on the team in targets.

And then Terrence Ferguson is the highest Ferguson in my rankings ahead of Jake Ferguson. That could change once we get some clarification on Puka's scenario of health plus suspension because I think that's the guy who wins the most if there is no Puka for any missed games. But they still need a third pass catcher. And by all accounts, he's going to be the third pass catcher there unless you're factoring Kairn. So we'll see. but I think just looking at upside, the two veterans and the second year guy,

for me, better than Brenton Strange, better than I had Chigalcuncle there for the majority of the offseason prior to the Stefan Digg signing. I'm trying to think any other veteran guys there are the also ran tight ends. Like, you know, Shultz and Johnson, I did not expect to be in this type of scenario, but injuries have opened the door for them to be very relevant once again. And, I mean,

Schultz had 106 targets last year. That's just, I never, I didn't remember that. He didn't really do that much with them. Right. That's part of the problem. Well, he actually did do a lot with them in PPR at the second half of the season. Yeah. You know, he was, he was a guy we kept saying he should be added.

He should be started. He should be started. He should be started. He should be started. Like, it was just, he was a guy for CJ Stroud. And I think that's going to be the case once again. And the same thing with John Johnson. You know, these guys were afterthoughts.

that could be very relevant to your fantasy team. Probably going to be a little frustrating, but Dalton Schultz did have a nine-game stretch mid-season, you know, mid to late, where he averaged 11.9 PPR fantasy points per game. He had some huge games in there. Joanne Johnson got off to a great start, then slumped, then got pretty good.

But like the last four games of the year, Devon Valey did not play in any of them. Chris Olabe missed week 18. And he still, Joanne Johnson only had a 17.5% target share. but he did average 11.7 points per game in nine games with Tyler Shuck just wasn't very consistent but yeah I mean if you're sitting there going

man my tight end stink Juan Johnson Dalton Schultz I don't like those guys you'd be okay throwing in your lineup week one right it's more for Ferguson it's more of a let's wait and see kind of deal I would assume you can't Jeff the other two guys as starters you can't draft Ferguson as a starter right exactly

okay unless Pook is out week one doesn't make the trip to Australia. I don't think that anybody wants to start Ferguson yet. You can if you're stuck. There's got to be with that qualifier. Right. So if you miss on tight end,

then you go with a combination of Schultz and Ferguson or Kincaid in Ferguson or Andrews, Ferguson, even if you want to go to, you know, as high as Kittle, Kelsey, Goddard, the last three guys that are typically rounding out the top 12. Like you're not comfortable with whoever their matchups may be early in the season or in the case of,

hey, I'm going to take Kittle and that's your end, then easily you're starting him if there is no Puka. But I don't think you want to go into the season with starting Ferguson. Like that's the type of guy that by the middle of the year, if he's heavily involved Pooka or not, you'll be really thrilled that you have him on your team. And just talking about late round flyers, if you're desperate, I think it was the draftathon league that we did yesterday.

I just kept taking running backs. I just really liked the value. I have like five good running backs. That's the way to do it. But it's a three-receiver PPR league, so you can start four receivers. I only think I have four receivers on my roster. No, I have five. But Devon Vele is a guy I want to mention as someone who, if you're in that kind of format, where you could start three or four wide receivers and, you know, and he might be good.

He might be okay for you at the beginning of the year. I don't know if he got drafted in this league. Remember, Jamie? Veil, I don't remember. I'm sorry. He did not. I feel like I could name five other, at least five, maybe. even like 15 other receivers I'd rather have.

I'll tell you what, I have Khalil Shakir on my team. He was one my last picks. That's one guy I'd rather have. I don't know. I would. Trey Tucker, booty,

now that he's in Houston. Dobbs is going with a late check. I would have taken for sure. He was off the way off the board. I would take flyers on both the dolphins rookies ahead of him. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Wait a minute. When you, oh, yeah, both the dolphins. You're talking about, you're talking about bench players. And I agree because I don't think Velae has any real upside.

But I think, think he could be, you know, 10ish points per game in PPR, right? Like get your four catches a game or something like that. But I feel like we can find it. Why are you drafting those players? Right. I'm saying, I didn't draft them. Oh, but that profile.

Like, why would you draft that profile? You may not have a choice. I'm saying he could. How many, what round are we in if you don't have that choice at him? Round 18. 13, 14. No, you can find better than that. Half the people listening don't even know who Chris Bell is.

Chris Bell is a rookie wide receiver on the Dolphins who had just got. taken off of the NFI list. He's coming back from an ACL. He's ramping up. I would much rather take the chance on him or his rookie teammate. Jamie just talked about these guys. Caleb Douglas in Miami, they're going to get fast tracked into the starting lineup.

You draft players that have upside that might be able to hit within the first three weeks of the season. I don't think, I don't think. I do not think Chris Bell is going to hit within the first three weeks of the season. He might not. But Vailay was solid last year. I mean, as I recall. Tell me what solid is.

Okay, let's look. He scored 6.7, 23.3, 7, and 11.9 fantasy points in his last four games before his season ending in. So one game great, one game, I would say as solid is the 11 point game. And then two games where he did not help you whatsoever. He had 7, 8, 5, and 6 targets in those four games. Do you think Chris Bell is going to average six or more targets per game? Not at the beginning of the year. But so I think you're both coming at it from the right perspective, but just different approaches.

So I think Adam is trying to get somebody that if you're stuck early in the season, you can get some production from. But there's very limited upside. I think what Dave's talking about is, which is where I would side, is that I would rather put players on my bench that hopefully by the middle to the end of the season are going to be in that starting conversation. because they're good. I completely agree. We don't have to give them to this more. I completely agree with you.

There might be a scenario where you're in a league that you can start four receivers and two of your guys are hurt or something like that and you're desperate. Devon Velae might get off to a better start than those high upside guys. That's all I wanted to say. That's fair. Find them off the waiver wire. Very specific scenario. All right.

Let's give me a real quick. We'll take another break in a second here. But give me a quick preview of your do not draft list and give me one guy that you're going to talk about. on CBS Sports Network today, Dave Richard. Breece Hall, going to stay on this hill. I'll die on it if I have to. Very worried about how effective the Jets will be,

worried about how Frank Reich will utilize him and not maximize it. Don't like the fact that he had a groin injury in training camp. Hopefully he'll start practicing a week or two week before the season starts, and that'll be out of our heads. I know he's a good running back. I know he's talented. And I know he had a lot of work last year. Still average 13 PPR points per game.

I don't think he's a third rounder. You think he's a fourth rounder? I think he's a fourth rounder and a late fourth rounder. Jamie, do not draft list? We talked about a lot of them already. I mean, I'm going to bring up more arguments against Genty and Love and McCaffrey. I don't think we need to talk Devon H.N. again, about why I would not be drafting him. The other guy on the list is really more of an ADP thing, and that's Josh Allen.

So 19th overall, when every other quarterback basically is round four or later, I just don't understand. And he is not going to be that much better than the field. So do not take Josh Allen in round two. I haven't drafted any Josh Allen. And I haven't drafted any Travion Henderson either. That was the guy I gave last week on CBS Sports HQ. Just curious to see. Let's see just over the last two days an NFC,

now that Trayvon Henderson has hurt, where is he going? He's going 67th overall. That's already. Basically tied with Ramandre Stevenson. I don't get it. I don't get it. I wonder if we're going to be... Wait a minute.

You should get it. People love upside. They want to draft a player that's got crazy good upside. He has as much upside as anybody, I think, as you... It's true, but... He said a previous episode, Adam, like, ranked the... Or somebody asked us the question, like, rank the backup running backs. It's hard not to put him first.

But it just is not what's reality right now. And the fact that you just gave a date range that factors in his interest... injuries or injury. Yeah, which we don't think is a big deal, right? No, but it's usually something that moves the needle. And he's still 66th on our site as well. And Ramandre is 79th. Like, that's not, I don't understand that.

Yeah. And neither. And also, again, if you want a player who has big upside if the starter gets hurt, why take Trayvian Henderson in round six when you could take Blake Corum, Kyle Monongai, two or three rounds later. We know, like honestly, even Taije Spears probably has not Travion Henderson upside, but he's going to be worth using, I think, if Pollard's out.

And he goes super late. No, okay, fine, fine. No, hashtag Titans. Well, then don't draft Tony Pollard. I'm trying not to. All right. I've drafted a decent amount of Tonya Pollard, but. I'm sorry.

Yeah, it might not be great. All right, we're going to take a break and we'll come back with your news and notes on Omarian Hampton. Ken Walker, Luther Burden, and more. And we will finish with some offensive line talk. And maybe see if we have time for your emails on Fantasy Football. We'll be right back. I will send ice cream to the office for either one of you.

If you can name without looking the four games that are on tonight. Oh, I don't know. No clue. Oh, wait, preseason games? Yeah, yeah. I literally looked this morning and now I can't remember them all. I looked five minutes ago and I forgot. It's been honestly the worst preseason ever.

Why? They're all bad. No, this has been awful. Like, nobody plays. I feel like, yeah. I thought the first week we got a good amount of people playing. And it was a little loud of scary. I think everybody got scared with a Jeremiah love injury.

Yeah, right. I think that spooked a lot of people. Well, also, last third, like, I just assumed last week there weren't going to be a lot of starters playing because all these teams had joint practices. And then last Thursday, a lot of the starters. played. I was like, this is weird. But then Friday and Saturday, they did not at all, which was honestly great, because I don't want to overreact from like one series. All right, tonight's Pittsburgh Buffalo, Sam Fran, Las Vegas, New England at Cleveland,

and the Rams are at the Chargers. But now let's get into the news and notes brought to you by Stitch Fix. And if you're like me and clothes shopping isn't really your thing, Stitch Fix has you covered. Get $20 off your first order at Stitchfix.com. com slash football. Stitchfix.com slash football. Omari and Hampton, Dave, I thought you said something, maybe said something last time. I don't know if it was you about Hampton and just a glowing report about him. Yes. Then we saw McDaniel say something glowing about him. What's the deal here? Lots of glowing stuff about him. Daniel Popper from the athletic who is around the Chargers quite a bit says, don't overthink it. It's a no-brainer. Omar and Hampton is the lead back here. And then Mike McDaniel took to the press and

compared Omar and Hampton to Terrell Davis. That's lofty stuff. That might be a little much for Amari and Hampton. That's a coach maybe given a little too much lip service. But it certainly, he wouldn't say these things if he didn't believe in Amari and Hampton to be a capable lead running back for his team. Chargers offensive line is mostly healthy, losing Biotis stinks. But they've got their tackles. They'll be able to solve the problem on the interior of their offensive line.

And I think Hampton is now set up for a much, much better year. than he had last year. And last year was pretty good. Nine games, 15.1 PPR points per game. I have him as a top 15 running back. Over top 15. I'm sorry, top 15 overall. Of course he's a top 15 running back.

Goodness gracious. So you could take both. But if you had a late first round pick, would you take Hampton, C.D. Lamb or Justin Jefferson? Lamb. Lamb would be the pick. Jamie?

Hampton, but they're all very close. Kenneth Walker had some swelling in his foot. It was caused by his shoe. I don't think this is a big deal. We've been there, man. Yeah. Have we? No, I'm joking.

Luther Burden participated in practice. He's trending toward a week one return. Same with Miami wide receiver, Chris Bell. I mean, he could play week one. Dave was just talking about him. Alec Pierce is off the Pupp list. Jaden Daniels has had a great offseason according to the athletic, but we're going to talk about their offensive line very soon.

Tyler Warren may not practice. this week as the Colts are playing it safe, trying to get Warren ready for week one. Jacksonville used Chris Rodriguez over Bejel Tootin in the two-minute drill in yesterday's practice with LeQuint Allen still out, Dave. Right. And Allen would normally have that role. So this shouldn't be something that makes you nervous about Tootin, nor excited about Chris Rodriguez, unless the Allen injury does bleed into the regular season. But who do you think is going to be the goal line back there? Rodriguez. I'm afraid of it.

going to be Rodriguez, and that's unfortunate. However, Tudin did well at the goal line last year, and he had a better rate inside the five than Rodriguez did in Washington in 2025. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if Rodriguez began the year in that role, and if he can't connect on a couple, the Jaguars go right back to Tudon. I mean, if you don't think he's, we know he's not going to be the third downback. That's going to be. Either of these guys are going to be the third down back.

And if we don't think he's going to be. the goal lineback, then why is Basil Tudin not one of the worst picks in fantasy late round five? Well, there's uncertainty with what's going to happen. I mean, you know, we could say this, he could be that guy or he cannot be that guy. I mean, it's not like Chris Rodriguez's resume is that fantastic. The fact that he has a history with Liam Cohen is something that I think may have got a little overblown or is being overreacted to.

He's already been banged up in camp, so we'll see if he can hold up and, you know, share the role. I think if you listen to Liam Cohen and everything that's kind of happened this off season, like they want to be their guy. To what extent and to what roles he'll play, if we'll play all the role, is what we just don't know until we see it unfold. So I think when you get into that range of running backs, you know, again, to go back to the players that we discussed, what we were talking about, Bucky Irving. So Irving, Judkins, Scadaboo, Montgomery. Then there's two guys. You have one on the list here to discuss. us in Jeddarian Price. Like Price and Tutin, there's a lot of questions about them. There's a lot of

upside for both of them. Price could be awesome if Zach Charbonnet is out for two months to start the season. Price could be a disaster if Charbonnet comes back by October. And we don't know how that will all unfold. You know, will Price still be featured? Will Charbonnet be healthy enough to do more than it's expected? And for Tutin, it's all the things we just discussed. So those two are very very risky, but there's so much reward if they hit. All right. So let's talk about Judarian Price then. Just a few other quick news items here. James Connor, questionable for week

one with an ankle injury. He could still factor in for Arizona. Mackay Lemon's been used a lot in motion and a lot on short area throws for Philadelphia. That's Mackay Lemon. Rashad Bateman's been very good with Zay Flowers out. I wonder if he's going to be enough of a factor, fingers crossed here,

to hurt Jay Flowers this season. But then, yeah, Pete Priscoe, very high on Adarian Price. And then it was... He likes him better than love. Wow. That is bonkers to me.

Like, as a player or just this year? I think as a player, I don't want to speak for him, but I know he was very high on price coming out of the draft. Going into draft, excuse me. All right, so I want you to talk about Price and I want you to talk about Cam Scataboo and John Harbaugh saying that there's been

an ongoing pecking order at running back. I'll be back in about 30, second. So, you know, don't talk about me while I'm gone. Wow. You know, Adam's brother was really an out. Don't talk about him either. All right, fine. So the thing that you worry about with Scataboo is that he shares too much and that the Najee Harris signing is a legit threat to that workload that we're hoping for from Scataboo. Do I think he's the best option at the goal line for the Giants, Jamie? Yes, I think he is. And I think the Giants will use him there. But I'm a little bit worried about just how many touches and catches he'll get game to game.

And I don't think it's going to look like last year, unless it's a game the Giants are just winning big. There could be, they could legitimately have four running backs that they rotate into some degree every single game. And Scataboo will be at the top of that list. But I worry about him being this amazing workload monster like we saw for six games last year.

And in the case of Price, I think, again, it comes down to when Charbonnet will be healthy. because the longer he's out, the better price can be, assuming he's able to handle being a featured type of player. So this is a different office coordinator. So we'll see if the Kubiak rotation holds under a different. Is it a Kubiak rotation or a Shanahan rotation? I mean, if it's a Shanahan rotation,

then you got to feel good about price because Shanahan didn't really rotate his running backs. he did when he didn't have the guy. It took him until he had a guy to not rotate the run. Well, I mean, you know, you say that, but Mostert was a featured guy for him. Mason was a featured guy for him until he got hurt. Like when he has somebody that he trusts, he typically has leaned on that guy.

I mean, they had a different leading rush for five years in a row, mostly because of injuries, not necessarily because they were sharing before they got to McAfrey. I think the case for a Gendarium price is really how much you buy into Charbonnet and his return. So if you're looking for a great start and you're comparing, you know, Tutin and figuring out that mess or Scataboo figuring out that mess or Montgomery, now with some offensive line concerns and you just want to say, okay, I'm going to take the Seattle running back because that's probably just a good bet. You take price. Yeah. Yeah,

one of the most run heavy teams in the NFL last year. But if Jedarion Price faces New England in week one, which could be tough. They have a great run defense when they're healthy. Then Arizona and Washington. I know Washington tried to beef up on the interior or whatever, but those two teams are horrible against running backs. I won't go through the whole schedule. There's some good matchups, some good bad ones. But if Jarni and Price gets off to a good start,

like I could see Zach Charbonnet coming back and me in the goal line back. But Zach Charbonnet is, he's not a great rusher. And he's coming off a torn ACL that he suffered in January. So I feel like I've been that maybe just not open-minded enough about Price just, like being a steal. When do you want to take him? Yeah, like round six, but I just,

I can't sit here and say that I should take Bejel Tootin over him, except for whatever reason I'm more excited about Tutin's potential because he's so fast. I don't know how good price is. I think he, I think he may have been over drafted in the NFL draft, but Tootin was a fourth round pick. Like, what am I doing here?

Yeah, I agree. It doesn't make sense. I still take Tutton over price, but it doesn't make any. You know what? I think I'm just going to start taking price over Tutton. There you go. And that's what you should be wrong with that. I just not that excited about Price, but I, but he's got fewer obstacles in my opinion than Bezal Tootin. Right. Like this, we're talking this out. It makes more sense to take Price over

Tutin, doesn't it? I, I think you just have to put in your mind when you're looking at those two guys is when do I anticipate because we don't know, Zach Charbonnet returning. And then when when Sarbanet does return, you, you, you said this when you were talking about stashing him in an IRS. spot. Like, if he just comes back and is the goal line guy, that's a pretty prominent role for this team because it's not like they throw a lot to their running backs. They throw enough, but it's not like the receiving totals are going to save price. No.

So if he loses 50% of his touchdown, 60% of his touchdowns, like, that could be a huge problem. Whereas Tutin, so who would you, who would you rather have just based on what they accomplished last year, Travis A. Chan or Ken Walker from last year? Right. No, H-N for sure. And so that's Liam Cohen's running back versus Mike McDonald's running back or Jackson was running back versus Seattle's running back. Like which of the two scenarios are better?

And pros and cons are both. I mean, easily you can make the case. Like there's 400 vacated touches in the Seattle backfield with Charbonate out. Like that's huge for Judarian Price. Who was a first round pick? Now, we've talked a lot about late first round pick running backs and how bad they've been. and the history is not great for those guys. But also, if you look at when Seattle takes a skill player in the first round,

John Schneider's had a pretty good track record with that. So I think there's potential here for Price to be very good. You want to take him over Tudan? That's fine. You want to take Tuton over him? I have a question for you. Who do you think? Which team do you think average more running back fantasy points per game in PPR last year?

Seattle or Jacksonville? Seattle. Seattle. Seattle, they were 11th. Jacksonville was 16th. They averaged about one, one and a half more fantasy point, 1.6 more PPR fantasy points per game. So that might be a better way to look at it. I mean, obviously it doesn't mean it's going to repeat this year,

but that's another way to look at it. It's another way to look at it. There's more roadblocks for Tootin than there are for price. I mean, we can worry about Charbonnet being a factor in handling his role like he had last year, and I think the coaches would love to give it to him. but there's also the potential that Charbonnet doesn't heal so soon from a corny's still suffered in January. I got to run after this, but let's just put it simply like this.

Charbonnet is back October 1st when you're taking Tutin versus Price. You know right now he's coming back October 1st. That's still Price over Tutton. They're both late around five for me. I guess Price, yeah. If it's October 1st, I'm taking Tudon. Okay. All right.

Any other news here? Let's see. Tucker Kraft participated in yesterday's joint practice against the Cardinals. Later, Jamie. Tua Tunga by Loa is going to start tomorrow at the Dolphins. Michael Pennix, Jr. will not play.

We've been saying the reports are that, you know, it's basically, Pennix's opportunity to steal that job from Tua. He's been so bad. Ruben Bain, first round pick for the Bucks, having a pretty good preseason and good camp, but he hurt his shoulder should be ready for week one. Defense event. He seemed fine after practice on Tuesday.

I talked to him for a minute, and he seemed A-OK. Remember, shortest arms of, like, You couldn't even really tell. When you look at him up close, he didn't look like a, you know, a T-Rex or whatever. There's basically been no great defensive ends with arms shorter than Ruben B. Well, there's about to be as long as the shoulder's okay. It looks like he might have been a steal. And the Pro Bowl, oh, Cedric Tillman was released by the Browns and the Pro Bowl was released by the NFL.

The Pro Bowl has been eliminated. Thank you very much to Stitch Fix for sponsoring today's news and notes. Stitch Fix takes the hassle out of clothes shopping. Just take a quick style quiz, share your size, share your vibe and your budget, and you'll be matched with a real human, a real human stylist who will send you a first fix with clothes that fit and make sense for your life. Stop shopping and get style today at stitchfix.com slash football to get $20 off your first order. That is stitchfix.com slash football. All right, Dave, let's talk about these offensive lines that are worrying, What did you make of the comment from Nikki Javala who covers the commanders about how the worst I've ever seen the commander's offense in years?

Inoperable offensive line. Yeah, not good. And it's especially problematic when you think about what could happen if there's just a ton of pressure on Jaden Daniels from game to game and whether or not he can survive the whole season. We've already seen him beat up and missed time. And this is an offensive line. they lost their best tackle, Laramie Tunsell, their best offensive lineman, and now center Nick Allegretti's on the shelf. So that's two-fifths of the starting offensive line.

The other three players on the line are okay. Yet you've got to be concerned about what this line will look like and what it means and what adjustments the offense will have. This takes away time for Jaden Daniels to throw 10, 15, 20 yards down field. Who would he be throwing to? That's going to be Terry McLaren. It means he's going to have to speed up his throws, short throw. Who does that benefit?

It can benefit the running backs. It can benefit the tight end, but it really could benefit Stefan Diggs if they lower his route depth. And obviously, if he's pressured and he's feeling panicked, Daniels will run, and that's a double-edged store for fantasy. On the plus side, he'll get a bunch of fantasy points running the ball. On the downside, if he gets hit,

it could be curtains and it's risk. I haven't moved him down in my rankings much. I doubt I'm going to move him past any other quarterbacks. He's been QB6 for me all along. but I think it does hurt the upside of all these players if the commanders can't fix it now. I'll add this. There's still two weeks before the season starts. This was an eye-opening experience for the commanders.

I am sure the commander's coaching staff saw what Nikki saw, and therefore we'll try and do everything they can to help salvage the offensive line and make it better. Signing DJ Humphreys, I don't know if that's really anything that's going to make me feel better about where their offensive line is. they're probably going to be in the neighborhood. You see it here on the Football Insights consensus rankings for offensive line. They're bottom six or seven. They're now going to be bottom four.

I bet if we were much lower than they are here. Do you're saying? That's Washington. Yeah. And that's right. This is Washington ranked, I believe, with Tunsel. Yeah. So imagine how bad they're going to be without Tunsell.

That's a bottom five, bottom three type of offensive line. Now, 24, Jane Daniels' rookie season, he was so good. ESPN, win, you know, run block, pass block win rate had Washington as one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. But pro football focus, yeah, PFF, they had them as one of the worst. So offensive line ratings are so subjective and difficult, I think. And what you're looking at here is kind of a compilation of industry rankings of offensive lines and which teams are the best and which teams are the worst with the best.

Browns and the Titans and the Texans and the Packers and Dolphins, which is weird. We thought the Dolphins had a good. Yeah, I disagree with this Dolphins ranking. But the Browns and the Titans, I don't know that we really, and the Texans, I mean, those are worrisome. But, you know, keep in mind, like last year, looking at ESPN's pass block win rate, some of the worst teams were Detroit. Detroit was 31st.

The Chargers were 32nd, which makes sense. the Colts were 27th. Let's see. The Bengals were 28th. It's possible to have a bad line and still produce, but it's not great. The Saints were 29th, and this is past 1st.

You just named three, you just named four offensive lines that are top 12 in the consensus rankings. Saints, Lions, Chargers, Colts. Right. You never was going to get injured. I see that the Broncos up at the top. That's no surprise.

I think they can be better than they were last year. And the Eagles. That's a big one for me. It's like the Eagles were. so beat up last year. Lane Johnson missed time. I forget one of their, Dickerson,

Dickerson was playing hurt all year or most of the year. They're going to bounce back, I think, from an offensive line standpoint and have one of the best in football again, which is why I'm pretty excited about Barclay and Devante Smith. But, yeah, I mean, the Browns, like the thing with Judkins, dude, is like, Judkins is a great running back, I think.

But one, he's coming off this major injury. And two, he just like gently, last year, he was a victim of terrible offensive line play. What's going to change this year, Dave? I'm hoping that the offensive line is better than this ranking. And you have to give it to Cleveland for overhauling the entire offensive line. Rookie left tackle, first round pick, Spencer Fenno, Zion Johnson, Elton Jenkins, Tevin Jenkins is just okay at guard, and then Titus Howard came over from Houston to play right tackle.

It ain't great. but at least it's a step in the right direction. Fano, especially, is a step in the right direction. I don't think they're going to be middle of the pack, but they should still be maybe more closer to like bottom eight than bottom three. Okay. And I feel the same. I feel a lot better about the Dolphins offensive line.

They should be middle of the pack. Anything else, any other teams you want to talk about that could be impacted heavily by their line? I think Jacksonville's offensive line is a little underrated after what I saw. They drafted a rookie named Pregnon, who I think it might be a little raw, but they're going to roll with him anyway at guard, and I think he can be good. You see the Jets' offensive line in the bottom half. I think they're better than that.

One of the most insane ones on this consensus rank is Carolina. Four for four has the Panthers third best. Roto, I don't know if that's Roto World or Roto Wire, has them 29th best. So they are all over the map on the Panthers. it might come down to when the ranking was made for them. Because when they're healthy and their tackles are healthy, you can make the case for Carolina to be a top 10 offensive line. But with their tackles, their top two tackles out,

and their guards were missing for a chunk of the training camp. They're back now. You could have made the case that they were one of the worst offensive lines. So putting them in the middle is probably the right thing to do because we don't know when their tackles are going to be healthy, whether or not their backup tackles will play better, whether the guards can stay healthy. A lot of questions up in the air.

I would err on the side of caution with the Panthers' offensive line and say that they're not going to be one of the top units in the league. And that's bad news for everybody there in Carolina because Bryce Young under pressure, not great. Jonathan Brooks probably needs a little help from the offensive line in order to hit his potential. It's definitely a concern in Carolina. A couple of other ones that stand out.

I think Dallas's offensive line is a little underrated. I think Minnesota's offensive line, they're already top 12 on this list. I think Minnesota's offensive line. is a little underrated as well. That could be a top 10 offensive line. I hope the 49ers are really ninth best. That's where they are consensus.

But I don't know that it really played out that way. But every pretty much every. It's not. It's surprising. It's a lot of, it's a lot of faith being put on to Trent Williams. Do you hear that thunder? No.

I'm probably going to lose power soon. So, rainy. So you want to wrap up? Let's get out of here. Yeah. I don't know. It's fine.

If you have anything else that you wanted to talk about. I'm good. I'm good. We hit on a lot of touch points today. And we're going to do a mock draft tomorrow. Yes, I think that's what we're going to end up doing. Someone's saying, we'll have everybody ready for the, for drafts this weekend. Chargers O line is screwed.

I don't agree. They lost their center, Tyler Biotis. That's a guy who the commanders released with a year left on his contract. So it's not like they lost an Rpro center. So they've got Jake Slaughter. It was the second round pick. He was my favorite center in the draft. I think he's NFL ready.

He'll be good to go. Cole Strange is a little bit of a risky guard pick, along with Wosika at guard. I think I'm pronouncing that right. He played with Detroit last year. Yeah, those guard spots are a little spotty, but the tackles are going to be what I think carries the offensive line more than anything. All right. We're going to talk to you tomorrow. And at noon Eastern today with CBS Sports Network.

Thanks to Dave and Jamie. We, yeah, good show today. And we'll do a mock draft tomorrow to get you ready for. for a big weekend. Thanks a lot. Talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football today. On podcasts. Hello and welcome to Plutofo.

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